What’s The Best Cardio Workout?

What’s the best cardio workout? Is it different for each individual? Both are common questions, and we decided to dig into the data.

This in-depth post summarizes an experiment we conducted with a variety of workouts – from free YouTube workouts to your standard gym equipment to professionally designed routines.

It was interesting to learn that for us, the best cardio workouts are 60-90% more effective for weight loss than the worst.

In my case, if I did the worst workout instead of the best for a year, I would leave 23 pounds of weight loss on the table. Or, if I wanted to lose 23 pounds, it would take me 78 additional hours or 3.25 days!!

The experiment opened our eyes to the importance of working out smart. So, you want to know what’s the best cardio workout? Let’s dive into the experiment.

what is the best cardio workout?

Purpose

I have always been a fan of high-intensity cardio workouts. I started running at a young age, ran cross-country competitively, and played soccer year-round throughout high school.

Alex has also been a lifelong fan of cardio workouts, but she refers to herself as a “one-speed pony.” She has never liked the high-intensity workouts as much as I do and prefers running, swimming, and lifting weights.

Workout preferences aside, the purpose of this experiment was to identify the best, most effective cardio workout. Since we’ll be using heart rate analysis, our definition of “the best, most effective workout” is the workout that burns the most calories.

We will measure calories burned during the 20-minute workouts and for 60 minutes immediately after for the “afterburn effect.” We understand that there is more to a workout than just calories burned, but for experimental purposes, this was our best metric.

Our Hypothesis

So, based on our experience, what do we think is the best cardio workout? Probably the workout that has the fastest pace, fewest breaks, and engages the most muscle groups, because that will burn the most calories.

“I am confident that the Beachbody On Demand cardio workouts are going to be the best. It is total body, explosive cardio, they are designed by world-renowned trainers and a team of sports scientists, and they include only enough breaks to prevent you from fainting. I think HIIT will take the cake, and I have never been impressed with workouts on YouTube” – Ryan

“Although I love running and enjoy spin classes, I don’t think either will be the best cardio workouts. They don’t engage enough muscle groups, and they are less explosive than High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). I know nothing about the YouTube workouts, but I expect some form of HIIT to win.” – Alex

Collect data with Polar H7 HR Monitor immediately after the workout for 60 minutes while reading by the pool – referred to as “the afterburn”

Warm-up for 2.5 minutes (not included in HR data):

Run in place (30 seconds)

Jumping jacks (30 seconds)

Side step twists (30 seconds)

Stretch (60 seconds)

No other workouts during the experiment

No music during workouts

Graphical Results

The graphs below illustrate a strong correlation between average heart rate and calorie burn during the workouts. As shown in the graphs, Ryan burns significantly more calories than Alex during a cardio workout, and Alex tends to maintain a lower average heart rate. See Appendix I for the data tables.

The below graphs show the total calories burned (calories during the burn + the afterburn) as a result of each workout. Both BOD Cardio workouts showed the highest calorie burned during the 60-minute afterburn for both Ryan and Alex.

The regression analysis for both data sets is shown in the below plots. The analysis confirms a nearly perfect (R2 = 1) correlation between average heart rate and calorie burn. Therefore, our experimental results are accurate.

Results

The short version:

So, what’s the best cardio workout for Ryan and Alex? BOD Cardio 2, Insanity Max:30 Cardio Challenge, was the best cardio work out for both. BOD Cardio 1 was the second-best.

For Ryan, it was 91% more effective than the worst form of cardio, the exercise bike. And for Alex, it was 73% better than her worst cardio workout, the Fitness Blender workout on YouTube.

Let’s translate that data into something more digestible, Chipotle burritos (see what I did there?).

If Ryan did his worst form of cardio instead of his best for one year, he would miss the opportunity to burn an excess of 74 Chipotle burritos in calories. That’s the equivalent of 23 pounds of weight loss.

Similarly, if Alex did the same, she would miss the opportunity to burn an excess of 22 Chipotle burritos in calories. Therefore, she is leaving 7 pounds of weight loss on the table.

Of course, there is no such thing as bad cardio. Just less effective cardio. So, let’s say Ryan loves the exercise bike. That’s fine, but he would need to exercise for an additional 78 hours that year to burn off enough calories to lose 23 pounds. That’s 3.25 days on the bike!

Clearly, there is effective cardio and far less effective cardio. Take the time to find the best cardio workout for you, but when in doubt, HIIT is where it’s at. For more details, our calculations, and the long version, click the toggle below.

The longer version:

For Ryan, BOD Cardio 2, Insanity Max :30, was…

11% better than BOD Cardio 1, Transform :20

44% better than the treadmill

91% better than the exercise bike

68% better than YouTube Cardio 2, POPSUGAR Fitness

77% better than YouTube Cardio 1, Fitness Blender

For Alex, BOD Cardio 2, Insanity Max :30, was…

7% better than BOD Cardio 1, Transform :20

13% better than the treadmill

30% better than the exercise bike

60% better than YouTube Cardio 2, POPSUGAR Fitness

73% better than YouTube Cardio 1, Fitness Blender

If Ryan did 20-minutes of BOD Cardio 2, Insanity Max :30, five days a week for one year he would burn 169,780 calories. That’s…

Figure out what cardio is best for you

You can only do this by tracking your workouts with your FitBit, Apple Watch, or the highly accurate Polar H7 heart rate monitor. We used the Polar H7 for accuracy during this experiment, but our Apple Watches are reasonably accurate. We are happy with the series 3 watch for him and for her.

For Ryan, no other form of cardio came close to HIIT, but for Alex, running on the treadmill (8.5-minute mile) was a close runner up. The exercise bike and YouTube Cardio workouts were poor cardio workouts for both of us (according to the heart rate analysis charts in Appendix II).

The bad cardio workouts are usually slower paced with too many breaks to maintain an elevated heart rate. You’ll know they are bad because they aren’t challenging enough. And when they are challenging, they continue to work for you even after the workout is over.

Both Ryan and Alex burned more calories during the afterburn with BOD Cardio 1 and 2 workouts (Insanity Max:30 and Transform:20, respectively). These workouts maintained a high average heart rate (also delivered the highest max heart rates of all workouts) by challenging multiple muscle groups.

Therefore, having total body resistance moves in your cardio routine increases the calories burned in the afterburn. The more with lunges, jumping squats, push-ups, burpees, mountain climbers, and core moves, you can squeeze into your cardio routine, the better.

Partner up

Let’s face it. Cardio isn’t that fun. But it can be when you do it as a couple. You gain accountability, push yourselves harder, and boost your attraction to each other. Just to name a few of the benefits of working out as a couple.

Eat the right amount of calories

Exercise is necessary, but healthy eating is essential. It was important for us to learn that Ryan burns 3X calories compared to Alex while requiring 2X calories from meals.

After this experiment, we started paying more attention to portioning our meals. This is important because you won’t see results from your cardio if you’re not eating the right amount of fuel.

Workout Summary

Day 1 – Treadmill

So, what is the best cardio workout? Today, we started the experiment on the treadmill and ran an 8.5-minute mile pace for 20 minutes. For me (Ryan), it was difficult since I rarely run. Therefore, I was breathing heavy and sweating considerably at the end of the workout.

Surprisingly, the workout did not produce a very high average heart rate, 146 bpm. My lifting and cardio workouts regularly have me in the 150-170 bpm range.

Alex is a great runner, so this was easy for her but also produced a high average heart rate. She even burned more calories in the afterburn than she did in the burn. It was interesting to see how our bodies reacted differently to these workouts.

Running on the treadmill was boring for both of us. We much prefer to run outside. For me, it didn’t help that I was stuck watching a comedy cooking show in Japanese.

Day 2 – YouTube Cardio 1, Fitness Blender

Today’s workout was a let down for both Alex and I. It was a HIIT workout, which is my favorite form of cardio, but the exercises were too short and separated by too many breaks. Therefore, our average heart rate was very low. For me, 130 bpm and for Alex, 115 bpm. This is much lower than yesterday’s treadmill workout.

This might be a great workout for the beginner, but for us, they were far too easy. It’s definitely not going to be the best cardio workout.

Alex also found the video to be misleading as it promised 188-375 calories burned (shown right on the screen). She topped off at 67 calories burned instead.

Day 3 – BOD Cardio 2, Insanity Max :30, Cardio Challenge

Day 3 was insane, hence the name Insanity. The Insanity Max:30 Cardio Challenge delivered a high average heart rate and calorie burn for both Alex and me.

It was a major challenge, and during the afterburn, I could tell my body was fighting to recover. I was amazed that I burned 653 calories from a 20-minute workout (including the 60-minute afterburn). Very impressive results for Alex, too, burning a total of 216 calories!

The workout consisted of 45-second moves and three short breaks. I credit these great numbers to the intensity, variety of muscle groups recruited, and the explosive total-body moves.

Day 5 – BOD Cardio 1, Transform :20 Sample Workout

Today’s cardio workout was a burner! This was the first time ever doing this workout for both Alex and I. And, it took some focus to do the moves properly. Both of us hit our highest heart rate maximum yet! For me, 189 bpm, and for Alex, 170 bpm.

This routine requires a step, and that definitely increases the difficulty level and challenges the muscles in each leg (glutes especially) individually. Core exercises are a major component too. Since we were seated on the step doing core moves quite frequently, I was surprised that we maintained such a high average heart rate.

This cardio workout challenged not only our heart and lungs but also upper, lower, and core muscles. We both hit muscle failure in the 20 minutes so that is very impressive.

Day 6 – Exercise Bike

Today we followed the exercise bike program outlined in Appendix VI. As I reported to our Duo Life Community, this workout took me by surprise. I sweated like crazy, probably because my leg muscles were firing on the many steep hills built into the program.

Unfortunately, my heart rate dropped off quickly after the workout finished, and it ended up being the worst cardio workout for me. This surprised me as I thought it was far harder than the free Youtube workouts. However, this shows that muscle engagement during cardio workouts is critical. The exercise bike is not the best cardio work out.

Alex thought the exercise bike was pretty easy, which is interesting because, according to the heart rate analysis, it was a better cardio workout for her than the YouTube Cardio workouts. This just goes to show that everyone is unique! And it never hurts to have a heart rate monitor!

Appendix I

Experiment Data Tables:

Appendix II

Click below to see all heart rate analysis graphs from our Polar H7 heart rate monitors using the Polar Beat app. Heart rate analysis for Ryan and Alex is shown for the burn and afterburn.

We eat a mostly vegetarian diet (fully for Alex) of organic whole foods. We also stick to a 16/8 intermittent fasting plan. We were living in Hawaii during this experiment and our typical foods were listed below:

Conclusions

So, what’s the best cardio workout? Based on this data, total body HIIT. It should be fast-paced, incorporate bodyweight strength training, and keep you in zones 3, 4, and 5 for nearly the entire workout. It should be really hard, but you only have to do it for 20-30 minutes.

If you want effective cardio, there are a variety of great programs on Beachbody On Demand.

Backpacking 2-Week Fitness Plan

This Backpacking 2-Week Fitness Plan is designed for the intermediate athlete to get in the best possible shape for a multi-day trek, and fast. All major muscle groups needed for backpacking are targeted in a calendar optimized to build strength, flexibility, and stability. The plan comes with a calendar, free access to the workouts, and support from the Ryan and Alex Duo Life team. As avid backpackers ourselves, this is a proven plan to train hard for a trekking adventure.

14-Day Couples Yoga Challenge

This challenge aims to reconnect you to your health and help you appreciate your body. Practicing yoga as a couple is an opportunity to connect and be present in a way apart from your normal, busy lives.

The customized yoga workout calendar was curated by us to expose couples to a variety of yoga styles and instructors as well as practicing yoga from home.

Skiing 2-Week Fitness Plan

This Downhill Skiing 2-Week Fitness Plan is a full-body workout plan designed for the intermediate athlete to get in the best possible shape for a ski trip, and fast. All major muscle groups needed for skiing are targeted in a calendar optimized to build strength, flexibility, and stamina. Our skiing 2-week workout plan comes with a calendar, free access to the workouts, and support from the Ryan and Alex Duo Life team. As avid skiers ourselves, this is a proven plan to train hard for the best ski trip ever.

As Seen In

Hey we're Ryan and Alex

The creators of Ryan and Alex Duo Life. We are a husband-wife duo and “lifestyle engineers.”

After eight years working in the corporate world, originally as engineers, we left our high-powered jobs to tackle our true passion — helping couples engineer their best lives.

The synergy of our engineering minds and ten years of health coaching experience produced Ryan and Alex Duo Life. Our mission is to help you transform your bodies, minds, and relationship, as a couple.

4 Comments

Kathleen on February 5, 2019 at 8:24 AM

WoW and WoW! This makes an interesting read and surprising results. Body fat % difference between the two of you: who else on earth has 7%? Fun to read you were watching a Japanese cooking show while on the treadmill! Very scientific approach and findings. Well explained. I now have to find a way to print this. Congratulations! Very impressed in Belgium.

Thanks for reading so thoroughly, Kathleen! We were also surprised by the results but the information helps up pick the best cardio workout that can bring results in 20 minutes. We have a lot to Duo, so we always try to keep our workouts less than 30 minutes long. If you right click anywhere on this page you should be able to send the article to a printer or print to PDF.